Ahhh… You know things are going well when 1) your coffee tastes better than usual, and 2) your day begins with new Chanel.

Even though it feels a little weird to talk about fall makeup in early summer, my Chanel homie just hooked me up a with few preview products from the fall 2008 collection. Autumn leaves, here I come!

The entire gold-themed collection lands at Chanel counters this July, but here are three members of the fall collection. I’ve yet to see the items I’m *really* lusting after — the Gold Fever Highlighter and the Gold Light Glossimer — in person, but these should tide me over for now.

Rouge Hydrabase Lipstick in Great Copper ($26)

A semi-matte lipstick, Rouge Hydrabase in Great Copper feels nothing like those dry, cakey, heavy matte formulas of the 90s. I really like the formula Chanel used for Rouge Hydrabase. It’s light and incredibly moisturizing. Great Copper literally shimmers on my lips, and it almost couldn’t be easier to wear (That’s it in the picture above without a lipliner).

I can see myself wearing it to work every day. I know that wearing gloss on top of matte lipsticks sort of defeats the purpose, but I can’t wait to wear a thick layer of clear gloss on top of this. My makeup spider sense tells me it’s gonna look somethin’ fierce. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A

Jouse Contraste Powder Blush in Rose Dust ($40)

This beauty gives cheeks a matte, rosy plum glow. At first glance I was afraid this shade would be too cool and light for my tanned, post-vacation face, but after dusting two layers onto my cheeks I saw I was wrong to worry. Unlike light pink blushes with a tendency to look too obvious on tanned or dark skin (in a “Hey, look at me, I’m wearing blush!” kind of way), Rose Dust looks great on a tan. The shade reminds me of MAC’s Blushbaby! Still, because the pink is so light, I have a feeling it will look great on pale gals, too. Oh, and the texture? It’s soft like buttah, baby! Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A+

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Yes, Virginia, there is Chanel Heaven, and thy name is the Chanel Makeup Studio.

One of three Chanel Makeup Studios in the US (Honolulu, Hawaii; Costa Mesa, California; and Seattle, Washington), the Honolulu studio, located at Nordstrom in the Ala Moana shopping center, not only lets Chanel junkies play with the company’s full domestic makeup, fragrance and skin care lines but also allows them to get their Chanel-addicted hands on exclusive international products not normally carried by Chanel’s regular US counters.

Some European Chanel products currently available at the Ala Moana Chanel Makeup Studio

• Chanel Irreellee Blush in Snow ($40)
• Chanel Irreellee Blush in Sable ($40)
• Chanel Les 4 Ombres De Chanel Quadra Eye Shadow in Beiges Velours ($55)
• Rouge Allure Lipstick in Reve ($30)
• Rouge Allure Lipstick in Discrete ($30)
• Hydrabase lipstick in Sahara Beige ($30)
• Glossimer in Muscat ($25)
• Chanel Les Vernis Nail Color in Viollete ($20)

Non-Hawaii Chanel-aholics needn’t despair because nirvana is just a phone call (and a credit card) away. US residents may order Chanel’s international products by calling any of the three US Chanel Makeup Studios. Reach the Honolulu studio at (808) 953-6100. Ask for Sheila, the studio’s fabulous Chanel makeup artist, and tell her “Hi!” for me.

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When I hit the beach I make it a rule to leave the expensive stuff at home because stuff has a tendency to disappear near large bodies of water — fancy sunglasses get forgotten on restroom counters, keys fall out of pockets in the surf and cars get broken into. I just bring the bare essentials of inexpensive beauty beach survival along with me and leave my beach bag in the car or on shore. That way, if (when) something does disappear, it’s not hard to replace.

If I were a rich heiress, I’d have an endless supply of Clinique’s Long Last Glosswear SPF 15 lipgloss and would absentmindedly forget tubes of it everywhere, but I’m not a rich heiress. At $14 bucks a pop, I’m not about to risk losing Glosswear, so on beach trips I’m bringing along my tube of Neutrogena MoistureShine Lip Soother SPF 20 in Sheen ($6). This lil’ tube of gloss works like a charm, costs half as much as Glosswear does and still provides great SPF protection.

Sheen looks bright red in the tube but applies sheer pink. It has a light, slick feel on my lips, a subtle taste (which I don’t mind… It actually tastes really good, like watermelon Jolly Ranchers!) and subtle cooling effect. Great stuff, but it does have one unfortunate drawback: it doesn’t last (gives up after about two hours).

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BREAKING NEWS: Stila’s Multi-Effect Mascara ($20) creates thick, fatty-bo-batty lashes! Check out how my lashes go from zero to luscious in just two coats.

I gotta hand it to Stila for the curved brush they packaged with Multi-Effect Mascara. The thing flat-out rocks, helping the product deliver amazing thickness. The arch fits perfectly into the curve of my lashes (and probably yours, too), better than any other curved brush I’ve used before. With it I can really get into the lashes and coat them from root to tip.

I’m definitely loving the thickness Multi-Effect and its magical brush provide, but I was also hoping to see a more dramatic difference in length and lash curl. Stila says Multi-Effects is designed to create, well, multiple effects — longer, thicker and curlier lashes — but after two coats the difference I saw in length and curl were minimal. It held the curl but lengthened to a lesser degree than Shu Uemura’s Precise Volume Mascara does.

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Remember the MAC Cosmetics blue and green face of the day from a few weeks ago? Parrot ($14), a turquoise eyeshadow, and Sprout ($14), a sea green, featured heavily in the look. While I think they’re both fabulous colors, I wanted to find another more budget-friendly option, considering how $28 is a lot to pay for two colors that may not get a lot of regular use. Enter Sonia Kashuk’s Eye Shadow Duo in Double Whammy ($7.99). It offers two very similar blue and green shades for a quarter the price.

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